Jun 10, 2009 -- 4:11PM, Lonesentinel wrote:

My thoughts stem from the assumption that they crossed into North Korea on their own and of their own free will.  If the assumption is false, then so are my thoughts.

And no, I was not intending to communicate a gender-based judgement.

(don't take my shortness as anger either, I'm good)

Thanks for the clarification, lonesentinel  

The thing about the phrase "lady reporters" is that it carries an inherently negative gender-based bias -- a bias that does not fit either of these journalists.

By all accounts, these reporters are brave, bold, and fearless.  Folks who have worked with Laura Ling describe her as a bold and hardworking journalist who is both personable and empathetic.  "Committed," "devoted," and "passionate" are other adjectives colleagues use to describe her and her work.  They say these traits serve her well. professionally, including on the human trafficking story she was reporting on when she and her colleague Euna Lee were arrested by the North Koreans.

Ling and Lee both work in Current TV's Vanguard journalism department; Ling is a vice president and correspondent, and Lee is a film editor.  Current TV is a TV network founded by Al Gore, among others.  It's targeted to young people, and it aims to serve as a platform for citizen journalism while also producing documentaries on topics not covered elsewhere.  Hence the relatively unknown human trafficking story Ling and Lee were doing in China.  Euna Lee joined the team going to China on the human trafficking story largely because she's the only team member who speaks Korean.  Lee was raised in South Korea.

This certainly isn't Ling's first brush with dangerous journalism.  Several years ago, she worked on a story for Channel One about São Paulo's dangerous shantytowns for a series on urbanization.  Her male colleague on the story was scared sh*tless going into the slums, and their driver thought they were crazy.  Nevertheless, Ling remained calm and in charge.

At Channel One, she eventually became a producer and traveled to the West Bank, Indonesia, Cuba, and the Philippines.  She also covered US domestic issues, such as gangs in Los Angeles and homeless teens.

A friend and former programming president at Channel One says of her: "For as long as I've known her, [she] has always had a global conscience and was interested in stories that were happening around the world." 

More here.